Jury finds Navy SEAL guilty of weapons smuggling

A federal jury on Friday found a Coronado-based Navy SEAL guilty on 13 of 15 charges that he smuggled machine guns home from Iraq and then handed them and other weapons over to friends to sell on the street.

The jury returned the verdict in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas after considering the fate of Petty Officer 1st Class Nicholas Bickle for about 10 hours.

The active-duty SEAL faces up to 20 years in prison based on federal sentencing guidelines. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 20.

Bickle also could face a dishonorable discharge from the Navy, according to his lawyer, Jim Pokorny of San Diego.

Pokorny said the defense team was “deeply chagrined” by the jury’s decision.

“We’re troubled by the case that the prosecution presented, that was largely based on flimsy evidence and testimony of snitches and drug dealers,” he said. “We’re disappointed that reasonable interpretation of the circumstantial evidence was not resolved in Petty Officer Bickle’s favor.”

Pokorny said he will file an appeal while also requesting a sentence of probation for Bickle because of the SEAL’s wartime service.

U.S. District Court Judge Roger Hunt allowed Bickle to return to the Coronado Naval Amphibious Base to await sentencing, provided that he wears an electronic monitoring device.

Shortly after the verdict was announced, SEAL spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Frank Magallon said the Navy can now take “appropriate administrative actions” against Bickle. He did not elaborate on what those proceedings might be.

“I would also like to emphasize again that Petty Officer Bickle’s actions are not indicative of the greater Naval Special Warfare community and the thousands of men who are currently serving with honor and integrity abroad,” Magallon said.

Prosecutors said Bickle smuggled as many as 100 guns in a footlocker with a false bottom after deployments to Iraq with SEAL Team 5, the last of which ended in March 2009.

Search warrants served on Bickle’s storage unit in San Diego revealed the footlocker. The storage unit also held 3,000 rounds of military ammunition, pieces of detonating equipment and two Ruger handguns originally intended for use by Iraqi police forces.

Three of Bickle’s alleged co-conspirators pleaded guilty and agreed to testify that Bickle was the ringleader and that money from the sales flowed back to him.

Bickle, 34, did not testify during his 2½-week trial.

He had been nominated for the Bronze Star with V device, in recognition of his bravery during a 2008 incident in which he was credited with retrieving a live grenade and saving fellow sailors from injury.

On Friday, the SEAL command in Coronado said Bickle’s superiors had withdrawn his medal nomination from the evaluation process pending the final outcome of the court case.

Besides his military service, Bickle worked as a consultant and extra on the film “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.”

In another movie connection, director Peter Berg testified during the trial that Bickle gave him an AK-47 rifle in 2009 as a trophy from the Iraqi battlefield. Berg met and became friends with Bickle while embedded with the SEAL unit to conduct research for his upcoming movie “Lone Survivor,” which is based on the book by former SEAL Marcus Luttrell, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.